Bryce and Victoria was a huge lie."
Paul slumped against the wheel. "Okay, fine, I lied about that. But if you want me to tell the truth, you'll have to do the same."
Deming raised a quizzical eyebrow. "I don't follow."
"I know what you are. You don't have to keep your secret from me. I know you're one of them."
"One of who?"
He looked into her eyes. "I know the Committee's just a cover. That there are people in this world who don't die, who keep coming back every hundred years."
"You're insane. I have no idea what you are talking about." My God, had they been this sloppy? How was it that he knew their secrets? Talk about a security breach. Paul was neither a Conduit nor a familiar. How did he know?
Paul cleared his throat and looked out the window, and answered as if he had heard her question. "I've been a student at Duchesne for a couple of years now. I've seen things. I've heard things. Guys like Bryce Cutting are pretty careless. I know most of the kids at school are blind, but I'm not. I know what you are. And it's okay."
Deming shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said evenly. "What I do want to talk about is why Victoria Taylor was in your car just now."
"It's a stalemate then," Paul said amiably. "You want me to tell you the truth, but then you won't give me the courtesy of doing the same."
Suddenly, Deming remembered the words from the video. Vampires are real. Open your eyes. They are all around us. Do not believe the lies they tell.
Then Paul's words: People who don't know I exist. It's demeaning. She had dismissed his attitude as the usual resentment against the popular crowd, but it was more than that. He had a key to the school, and Victoria had been hidden in the attic. Then with a start she realized two things had been bothering since she'd learned of Stuart Rhodes's kidnapping. One, that at Rufus's party, Stuart had been standing next to Paul Rayburn. They were friends. Two, that it was a tasting party. The only humans invited were familiars and those who were about to become familiars. And yet Paul Rayburn had left the party unchosen. No bite marks. That was not supposed to happen. Committee rules forbade such a thing. Paul had seen too much--he should have been marked.
Deming had another epiphany. Jamie Kip's party was closed as well--only vampires and Conduits, familiars or about-to-be-familiars. Evan Howe had entered the party an ordinary boy and had left as Victoria Taylor's familiar. Deming would bet that Paul Rayburn had been at Jamie Kip's party--who knows how many parties--and had left unchanged. Unclaimed. Here was a human who did not feel any loyalty to the vampires, and yet was privy to their secrets.
Then she saw it as she looked into his bright blue eyes--the memory that had eluded her so far. The night of Jamie's party, Victoria was arguing with
Piper, and had stormed off. She had made it as far as the hallway, when Paul had come out of the shadows and placed a black bag over her head and dragged her back inside. He had waited until the changing of the Wardens at dawn to slip away with his hostage. That way no one had seen them. No records. No eyewitnesses.
Deming felt a sense of horror at her discovery. Paul meant something to her. When she'd bumped into him that morning she knew it was more than just bloodlust. She'd felt something for him she hadn't before, in centuries of being alive. Attraction. Affection. Respect. Admiration. Love? Maybe. It could have been. But now they would never know.
"Why, Paul?" Deming asked.
He smiled. "I'd suspected there was something going on for a long time, but I wanted to know for sure. Especially when my pal Stuart was tapped to be part of this 'Committee' and I wasn't. It didn't make sense that he would get in and I wouldn't. So one afternoon I hid in the library during one of their meetings and I saw and heard everything. I confronted Stuart--told him I knew, that I shot some video too, and I was going to put it up on the Internet, show everyone the truth.
"The whole world should know what you guys are. You run the place and no one even knows. It's not fair. You're not gods."
"No, we aren't," Deming agreed softly, thinking of that ancient battle in Heaven. "We aren't gods." They had certainly learned that the hard way.
"Why are you looking at me that way? You think I did something wrong? No way. It was all Victoria's idea to play hostage. Do you even think a human could overcome a vampire? Be serious. Anyway, I told Stuart what I was going to do, and he told her. She came to me and asked me not to post the video yet. She had something better in mind. She said that she and Stuart were in love, and they wanted to leave the Coven because they weren't allowed to be together.
"They were 'bonded' to other people. But if these other people found out, Stuart and Victoria would burn. They were scared of the--what do you guys call her--the Regent? They talked about Jack Force--about how what was planned for him would happen to them if anyone found out. So Victoria came up with this hostage thing. She said if we could make it seem like they'd died, no one would ever come looking for them. She said she knew how to fool even the Venators.
"She gave me detailed instructions. She was really concerned about timing. She said they were being watched all the time."
Deming nodded. How would Paul have known about the Wardens otherwise? She hadn't paid much attention to his affectus before, when he'd told her that fanciful tale about Victoria and Piper, but she was paying attention now. Everything she was reading indicated that he was telling the truth.
"I know you don't have any reason to believe me. I heard about you. Stuart told me. His dad is on the Conclave. You're some kind of super-vampire sleuth or something."
"What else did Stuart tell you?"
"That Victoria's waiting for him. See, she's been in the city the entire time. They're leaving for the European Coven. By tomorrow everyone would believe Stuart was dead, and they were free to go."
So if everything he was telling her was true, and his affectus seemed to prove it, plus the fact that Victoria, a vampire, could never have been subdued by a human against her will, then it was all a prank--a silly prank made by vampires who were in love with the wrong people and wanted to leave the Coven, and a human boy who wanted in on a big secret. Maybe the biggest secret of all.
"Listen, I know what you're thinking: you want to wipe my memory or something, right? Stuart and Victoria wanted to as well, but I managed to talk them out of it. Please don't."
Deming fiddled with the chopsticks in her hair. "No, a memory wipe won't take care of it. You know too much. If I did it, you could have . . . brain damage."
Paul glanced at the locked car door. "Then you're going to do the other thing. But maybe there's another way. I don't want that. Maybe I can be one of those human . . . what do you call it . . . Conduits or something."
"Conduits are born, not made. It's not an open position. The Coven would never allow it. I'm sorry. There's only one way." She knew what she had to do. Something that should have been done by someone a long time ago. Maybe that's why she had been so attracted to him, because she knew in the end, she would have to do this.
"Don't," Paul said, holding her hand. "Don't make me lesser than you. Treat me as an equal, as you have been. I'm just human, but it's our blood that keeps you alive. Without us, you are nothing."
He put a soft hand to her cheek. "Meet me on my own terms. Share yourself with me as a person. I know about the Sacred Kiss. I know what it does.
What it will do to me."
His affectus pulsated with the blue of the open sea and of the endless sky. Blue was the color of truth. He loved her. That was why she'd felt her stomach churn when she'd seen Victoria Taylor in his car. She had trusted him and he had lied to her. But he had only lied to protect his friends. He was so heartbreakingly lovely, she could weep. Deming touched his neck and whispered, "I love you too."
THIRTY-NINE
Puppetmaster
Just as Paul had said, it was all a big fake. That evening the Venator team swarmed his small bedroom. Sam was searching the glom memory while Ted and a tech aide work
ed on the computer.
"Take a look," Ted called, pointing to the screen.
Deming leaned over and read the e-mail. It was from Victoria Taylor.
Paul, Thank you for everything. The European Coven has agreed to take us. I cannot wait until Stuart and I are together again. You are a true friend. --Victoria
Everything had been staged as meticulously as a small theatrical production. Victoria had procured a corpse from the morgue. That was the body of the girl who had burned in Newport. There were dozens and dozens of e-mails from Stuart and Victoria. They had planned to leave the country the day of
Stuart's alleged burning. The whole thing was a hoax, an escape plan hidden within a conspiracy threat.
Luckily, it had all worked out for the best. No vampires had been harmed. Everyone thought Suck was a movie. The Red Bloods were still in the dark.
"You guys picking up Victoria and Stuart?" Deming asked.
"According to this they're meeting at JFK in an hour. We'll be there," replied Ted.
"The attic?"
"Checked out. His fingerprints were all over the computer, and fibers from the trunk of the car matched Stuart's DNA."
Deming realized Stuart had likely been in the trunk the night they had left Rufus King's party. So that was why Paul had looked so nervous when she'd asked him for a ride.
Sam Lennox returned from the glom. "Nothing here but boredom and loneliness," he said. "No sign of any violence or agitation. Looks like the kid was telling the truth."
It was just as she'd thought. Deming nibbled on her cuticles. Unlike the pretty story Paul had told her about Piper, in this one, everything had been as he'd described.
Deming felt relieved. She had gotten to the truth this time. Or had she? A nagging doubt remained. Everything fit too well, too simply . . . whether it was because it was the truth or because Paul had prepared another elaborate lie, she just wasn't sure. She had to cover all her bases.
"It's too easy," she muttered.
"What are you thinking?" Sam asked.
"Look, you guys kept those ashes from that burning, right? Have the bloodline checked. Just confirm that it wasn't Victoria."
"Done." Ted nodded and called into the Venator team back at the Repository to order the test.
"Keep a team on Rayburn," Deming ordered. "He'll be waking up soon enough. Then when you guys are done here, meet me back at Bleecker. I want to take another look at those masking spells. Make sure everything checks out."
FORTY
DeathWalk
Then the Lennox brothers met Deming back at Venator quarters, one look at their drawn faces told her all she had to know. Sam sunk into the nearest battered armchair. "You were right. The bloodline is unmistakable. Victoria Taylor is dead. She's been dead for weeks."
"And we checked the bond records," Ted added. "Victoria didn't have a bondmate in this cycle. Stuart didn't either. They were free agents. At least in this lifetime. But in any event, they weren't together, and they never were. It was all a lie. All the e-mails were faked."
Deming kept her calm, but her hands were shaking. "Stuart Rhodes?"
Sam shook his head. "The only thing we found at the airport terminal was an urn with remains. The lab's going through it now, but I have a hunch it's
Stuart. Looks like the body's been dead for three days. The video was a lie. There was no saving him from the beginning."
"Where's Paul?" she asked.
If it were possible to look more desolate, Ted Lennox managed it. "The team lost him a few hours ago. He slipped away; they don't know how. Look, whoever or whatever this guy is, he's dangerous. He's not one of us, and he's killed two vampires already. He's able to conjure a doppelganger. That's real dark magic right there." The Venators had found no trace of the girl in Paul's car in the glom memory, which meant she had never existed.
"And according to you he's able to manipulate his affectus. You'd better be careful down there," Sam warned. "Are you sure we can't talk you out of this?"
"No. I need to do this," Deming said. What had Paul said to her? I heard about you, that you were coming. He had been able to prepare. He knew all about her. He knew that she relied on her talent, her facile way of knowing what was so hard for other Venators to read. He knew she would be proud of it, arrogant even. He had found a way to use her talent against her.
But he hadn't counted on her ability to learn from her mistakes. She might have been fooled once, but he was wrong to think she would fall for a love story again.
"Right. But even if we can't find him on this side, we'll find him in the glom. I'm going in. We have a DeathWalk to complete."
Every vampire experienced the glom in a different way. For Deming, the twilight world manifested as an empty plaza in the middle of the Forbidden City, in Beijing. It had been years since she had seen the Forbidden City this way in real life. Nowadays it was crowded with so many tourists it was hard to comprehend the magnitude of its beauty. But in the glom, the ancient walled city was silent and empty.
She walked past the guardhouse, through the Outer Court to the Inner one, taking the Imperial Way, a path that was only reserved for the Emperor, until she was standing in the steps of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, which meant she was deep in the protoconscious. In the physical world, her heart stopped beating. She walked the line between the worlds, in the thin membrane that separated the living and the dead.
Paul was waiting for her at the steps of the farthest pavilion. In the glom, his soul was even more beautiful than his eyes. He smiled sadly at her. "I knew you would find me."
Deming walked up to him. Her wings beat against her back. She could choose to appear to him in any form, and came to him as the Angel of Mercy.
"Why did you kill them?"
"It's a long story," he said, putting her hand against his cheek.
"Does it begin in Florence? In the fifteenth century?"
Paul's face lit up. "Why yes. You were getting there, weren't you?"
"You saw the Repository files in my bag. You knew I would find out. That's why you conjured the illusion that afternoon. The girl in your car who was meant to be Victoria."
"Mmm-hmm."
"So tell me, what happened in Florence?"
"It's simple, really. Stuart and Victoria were part of a sect. They were called the Petruvians. Ghastly group, really. Butchers. Murderers. The worst kind of slayer. They killed in the name of peace, in the name of justice, in the name of God. They killed my mother."
"They must have had good reason," Deming protested. "The Code of the Vampires would never allow--"
"The Code of the Vampires does not protect the innocent!" Paul snapped. "The Code only serves to protect the vampires. No one else matters."
"You're wrong. The Code was created to protect humans. It always has."
Then Deming realized: the symbol of union in the video. Silver Bloods had mated with human women. Paul Rayburn was demon born, Nephilim. The bastard child of Croatan and Red Blood. "You should not exist," she said. "The vampires were not given the gift of creating life." Even Allegra's daughter was considered Abomination by some of the community. No one knew how Schuyler came into being.
"And yet I do. And I am not the only one. Take heed, vampire. For you are not the only orphans of the Almighty on this earth."
Paul raised his hand, and Deming could see he was carrying a zhanmadao, a two-handed saber that glittered with hellfire. "I am so very sorry, for I did not lie to you about my love, my sweet Venator. But I cannot allow you to live. The Mistress will keep her secrets."
Deming removed the chopsticks from her hair and raised the long sharp blade of Mercy-Killer. "I am sorry as well. My love for you was real."
The demon boy smiled. "Yes, you have made me your familiar. Alas, the Caerimonia will not allow you to harm me. My blood is your own."
He was right, of course. The Sacred Kiss ingrained a loyalty in its vampires so that a Blue Blood would never be able to deliberately harm one's familiar after f
irst bite. The biggest danger was in taking a human to Full Consumption because of bloodlust. After the Sacred Kiss was sealed, the human would forever be safe from their vampire.
Deming stared at Paul. His shirt collar was open, and she saw it again. Right at his neck. The triglyph with the symbols from the original hostage video. The sword piercing a star: Lucifer's mark. The sign of union. Last, the image of the lamb.
She had seen it first when she had taken him into her arms and pierced him with her fangs. She had chosen him; she had made him hers. She had done it out of love and duty. He had asked her not to--but only so that her resolution to do exactly what he wanted would be even stronger.
"There's only one problem with that rule," Deming said as she raised her sword. "You're not human." So that was why his blood had tasted strange.
The bitterness of it came from the taste of coal and the underworld.
Paul tried to block her with his blade, but her sword cleaved his in two. He gasped and fell to his knees, and for the first time, he looked afraid. "Think of your love for me," he begged.
Deming looked down at him pitilessly. "I am," she told him, and with all the strength she had, she struck her blade deep into his heart.
The Mistress
Florence, 1452
The highest tower in Florence was the unfinished dome, and once again, Tomi and Gio scaled the masonry to the top of the building.
"There's nothing here," Gio said, shaking his head.
Tomi took one more walk around the edge. She looked up at the night sky through the open ceiling. Then she knelt down and tapped on stone floor. It was hollow. The top of the dome might not be finished, but the floor below it was complete.
"Down the stairs," Tomi said. "Follow me."
The topmost landing was an empty hallway, save for one secret door. Tomi pushed against it, and it opened at her bidding.
Inside, there was a human female. One of the greatest beauties in Florence, whose portrait was painted by many of the city's greatest artists, all of whom were in love with her.
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